A little talent

Thought I’d get off the aggro train and take a little time looking at the shadow side. In this case, the first tier of the talents. Spirit Tap vs Blackout.

Tooltip, Spirit Tap: “Gives you a [20/40/60/80/100]% chance to gain a 100% bonus to your Spirit after killing a target that yields experience or honor. For thhe duration, your Mana will regenerate at a 50% rate while casting. Lasts 15 seconds.”

Fast summary: ST is preferable when PVE and/or solo play dominates. B is preferred when your dominant play is PVP and/or group.

Mana regen is a wondrous thing, be you level 10 or level 70. And 50% of mana regen even while casting (before other talents boost that) is GREAT. The bad news is that YOU must make the kill. Thus if you are mostly playing in groups, your chance of getting the killing blow drops – and the usefulness depends on that fact. And… when you’re in PVP, mana regen is less important. Not unimportant, it’s just that… a battle against other players tends to be DONE before you’re out of or low on mana, and it’s rare that you need to fight the next battle immediately. On PVE, well, you can take your time at mana regen if you want, but faster regen means faster grinding which means the loot and XP are yours even faster. Now if you’re usually solo but on a PVP server – especially an ACTIVE PVP server… it depends on whether solo or PVP is going to dominate your play. But before you decide, let’s look at the other choice.

Blackout. 10% at best just doesn’t seem to be a lot. That said, a PVP battle can easily see it proc at least once, and three seconds of the opponent being stunned is priceless. A PVE mob, not so much — though a Boss getting stunned is almost as valuable as a Player. It’s a talent for the tough fights, not the grind.

In fact, that’s the best way to figure out which of these talents you should choose. If you plan and play for the burst, take the Blackout. If your planning for the long steady run, take the Spirit Tap. It’s that simple, and that hard.

About…

I've experience with many priests of many races and specs on several servers. The more I play, the more I realize how much I do not yet know. This is a share of some of what I have learned.
My main these days is Zingiber on the Undermine server.